Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” That is an accurate assessment of the discipleship to which we are called. There are benefits, and they are far more wonderful than can even be comprehended. Even so, true Christianity is a life of sacrifice where we no longer live for ourselves but for Him.

          When Jesus called men, He started with the most difficult requirements, not the benefits. In fact, He hardly mentioned the benefits until they were already disciples. Some obviously think they can do better than the Lord by...

          The angel that released the apostles from prison said to them, “Go stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life” (Acts 5:20). To know “the whole message of this life” and to be obedient to it will be the basic devotion of a disciple.

          A disciple is more than just a student. A disciple lives to learn from his master and become like him. Every disciple of Christ lives to learn of Him and to become like Him doing the works that He did. As we have discussed, one of the...

          As we covered last week, the main reason the Lord did not take His authority over the earth immediately after His resurrection was to seek a bride. The wife of the first Adam disobeyed the Lord and submitted to the devil, but the wife of “the last Adam” would resist the devil and prove her love for the Lord by her obedience. At all cost, against the opposition of the entire earth and even hell itself, she would follow the Lord.

          This entire age since the resurrection of Jesus has been rightly called “the church age” or “the...

          As we have been covering, “all authority in heaven and earth” has been given to Jesus, but He has not taken that authority over the earth yet. His kingdom is going to come, and His will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven. All of heaven lives under the domain of the King. Only Satan and the angels who followed him have rebelled from the heavenly realm and were cast down to the earth when mankind rebelled against God. Now the only rebellion against God in all of creation, the physical or spiritual realms,...

          Our God is so big and so wonderful we will be marveling at Him for all of eternity, so it is good to get started! Because the first commandment is to love Him above all things, the ultimate issue by which it will be determined if we are successful human beings or not will be by how much we love God. Therefore, this should be the greatest devotion of our lives.

          Because God is the most lovable Being in all of creation, I am convinced that we cannot see Him or learn anything about Him without loving Him...